An
introduction to
"Too
Old To Rock 'n' Roll:
Too Young To Die!"
The album "Too Old To Rock 'n'
Roll", like "Warchild", originated more
from an ambitious project than being just another
Tull-album. Where the basis for "Warchild" was
originally a film, the album at hand stemmed from the
idea of a stage musical. David Palmer and Ian Anderson
started writing songs for this planned musical in 1975.
They intended to record 18 songs, of which about the
twelve best ones would make it for a new Tull-album. In
the original concept the subjects of the songs were to be
people from different walks of life: an ageing rock-star,
a housewife, an artist etc. The songs written for this
musical were intended to be sung by seventies pop-star
Adam Faith. The plans for the musical were - like the War
Child film - abandoned. The sources I have used do not
reveal why. They do reveal however that Ian looked for
new forms of creative expression. I assume that the need
for a new album, the oncoming next world tour and
possibly financial problems to realise this musical, were
the main reasons why it never materialized. Anyway, with
so much work already done, it seems that the rock-star
was the personality that was worked out well enough into
a coherent story to make an album out of it.
With this album Ian once again brings an
aspect of history to the fore: in this case the
phenomenon of reoccurring trends in music and fashion. Is
Ian implicitely saying here that there are no real new
trends: it all has been seen and done before? (Like the
women of Pompeď wearing bikini's 2000 years ago ...).
There is, I think, an interesting link in this case with
"Thick As A Brick", where the same phenomenon
is a subject in the lyrics, but now in regard to morals!
( Remember: the sand castle virtues...). Rees states
".... the plot was pretty straightforward, with the
message that the cyclical nature of fashion means that if
you don't change your image, it will one day be
fashionable again" (1, p. 71).
The story is about a young rocker, Ray
Lomas, who clings to his music and fashion, in spite of
getting older ("Too old to R & R)", while
his old-time mates conform to society and thus become
'square'. He feels isolated, gets fed up with this
situation and in a rebellious mood he decides to run away
from it all, leaves on his motorcycle and his racing the
A1 motorway leads to an accident, that almost kills him
("Too young to die"). While recovering in
hospital from his severe injuries, there is a 'new' trend
in music and fashion, which after leaving the hospital
makes him and his image completely up-to-date again! Once
again he is a fashionable teen idol. A comic strip on the
inside of the cover of this album illustrates the story
of Ray Lomas and connects the songs to eachother. Dustin
Poe points out, that Ray Lomas is not the 'hero of the
story', but the personification of what is being
ridiculed. This is most apparent in the last part of
the album, with Big Dipper, the title track, and Pied
Piper. Ray is one of those people who are so caught up in
living in the past (no pun intended), that when they
enter the real world they can't deal with it. Ray Lomas
is treated with that trademark Ian treatment of irony and
sarcasm which is for me the greatest appeal of his
lyrics.
The album was released in 1976 when punk
rock and new wave were about to draw the attention away
from the great bands of the late sixties and early
seventies. These bands were considered more and more as
the "dinosaurs" of rock, as a nuisance
"we" had to get rid of in order to break the
way for new developments. Rees quotes Ian: "The new
punks are doing what the old rockers were doing years
ago. They were playing rock and blues, now it's
punk-rock, but it's essentially the same thing, both in
terms of music and attitude. I started out doing what the
Sex Pistols are doing now. OK, I didn't actually spit at
people when we played the Marquee, but I certainly
insulted them a lot!"( 1; p. 72-73). Remember Pete
Townsend of The Who, smashing his guitars and amplifiers,
or Jim Morrison of the Doors, provoking his audience
throwing up and peeing on stage......
With the Ray Lomas story, Ian shows his
sense for history, not only in respect to reoccurring
trends in music and fashion but also regarding his own
relative position on the rock scene. He must have noticed
that he was losing ground: the next generation of teens
was not exactly dying of impatience for his music and he
surely must have been aware of the fact that he missed
the linking-up with them. Though still very popular and
successful at the time, especially in the USA and
Germany, Ian must have forseen that the band would have
to endure a period of neglect, lack of attention and even
being flamed by the music press and that eventually the
tide would turn again in their favour. Looking back from
the perspective of the present day this seems to be
confirmed by at least one fact and one phenomenon. In
1987 Jethro Tull won a Grammy award for "Crest Of A
Knave", beating the nominated Metallica, evoking new
interest for the band and their music. Secondly, the
old-time fans see more and more young people getting
interested in Jethro Tull: these young fans attend gigs
and are present on the internet in forums, chatboxes,
newsgroups and with their own Tull-websites appreciating
the band in their own way, while at the same time a
consistent group of loyal followers (mostly being in
their forties or fifties) kept track of the band in all
these the years!
Now let's get back to the album itself.
It seems to me, that the original plan of writing a stage
musical in the end turned out to be a defining, perhaps
limiting format for the songs that finally made it to the
album. The lyrics are pretty straightforward, the plot is
simple and several songs, especially the title song, are
quite plain, predictable and thus lacking the 'listening
adventure' that always featured Ian's music ever since
"Stand Up". Since they should all be
performable on stage in the setting of a musical, sung by
Adam Faith instead of Ian, most of them are relatively
simple and they tend to under-expose Ian's vocal
qualities, imposing the idea that the album is
alltogether "uninspired and stodgy" (1, p. 71).
However, the album still contains some beautiful songs
like 'Salamander', 'Pied Piper', 'From A Dead Beat To An
Old Greaser' and 'Bad-Eyed And Loveless' and the real fan
certainly could not do without this one .
* Jan Voorbij; Cited: 1. David Rees: 'Minstrels in The
Gallery : A History Of Jethro Tull', Wembley, UK, 1998.
Annotations
Under the cover of
the story of Ray Lomas, this particular song
contains an ironic description of the television
quizzes that were so very popular during the
sixties and early seventies, esp. in the USA and
in Europe: "It's a try out
for a quizz show that millions watch each week,
following the fate and fortune of contestants as
they speak".
These quizzes were often criticized. I remember
clearly how we as young students considered them
with desdain as symptoms of the consumer society,
where material things like cars and
washing-machines seemed to be the only things
that really mattered. Big prizes were at stake.
The second point of critique in those days had to
do with the dullness of this kind of 'amusement
for the masses', of its lack of intelligence and
its lack of appeal on - let's say - creative
thinking of the viewers.
The irony spills
over to this song, but here the would-be life of
being a star seems to be the subject matter.In
the first verse the image(-building) of the star
is described eventually leading the star to
belief he really is someone special: "be
the man that you really think (know) you
are". Now the
star has made it to the top, he becomes
frightened: "hold your
breath and light a candle", for he discovers he cannot live up to
expectations ("the man that you really know
you are"), being not the big personality the
public believes him to be since he is a star in
their eyes: "the corridors
that echo in your brain filled with empty
nothingness, empty hunger pains". Is Ian here deliberately relativizing
his own position as a rock star?
* Jan Voorbij
Although surficially rather
'earthy', the second verse says quite a lot and
reinforces the theme of living in the past. "Is
it them or is it you, throwing dice inside the
loo awaiting someone else to pull the chain".
In verse one, a star was created, perhaps a
musician with a hit single, an actor in a hit
film, or a world champion sportsman. Let s pursue
the metaphor with a rock star. Now he's living on
the past glory of that one hit, relying on it to
maintain his fame - but the winning streak won't
last forever. Eventually, a critic will turn on
him, or another band will have a new hit single -
he'll be flushed from public consciousness. "Well
grab the old bog-handle, hold your breath and
light a candle". Rather than
wait for someone else to do it, the rock star has
to put his past glories to one side and produce
something new. Inevitably, there's a degree of
hype remaining about his previous release(s),
certain expectations from the public, and a lot
of bull from critics, promoters and hangers-on,
which all must be dispelled before starting the
new project."Clear
your throat and pray for rain".
The classic pose of the constipated! And that's
the problem. As the rest of the verse shows, the
rock star can't produce new material." ...and pray for rain
to irrigate the corridors that echo in your brain
filled with empty nothingness, empty hunger
pains". He can't think of
stunning new lyrics, or a killer riff to match
the previous single. He's getting worried that he
might be a one hit wonder, who can ONLY live in
the past.
* Neil R. Thomason
Ian applies in 'Crazed
Institution' a mix of irony and sarcasm. "Ring
a crown of roses 'round your cranium. Live and
die upon your cross of platinum".
This being a reference to Jesus, saying that not
only do the public tends to look on pop stars as
messiahs, but quite often the stars see
themselves in this way.
* Dustin Poe
Salamander
I discovered some information
pertaining to the song Salamander. I was watching
a TV show last night about magic and magicians,
and they said that somehow there was an old folk
tale or something which connected salamanders
with fire-walkers. They said that over time, the
term 'salamander' has been applied to such things
as fire-eating, fire-breathing, etc. So
then I realized that the song Salamander has many
references to fire: "born of the sun-kissed
flame. Who was it lit your candle, branded you
with your name?" and "Salamander,burn for me,
and I'll burn for you". That
still doesn't explain the song itself very well
but it does explain why it was named Salamander.
I looked up 'salamander' in the dictionary, and
apart from the expected definition, there is a
second definition of the word. Here are the
exact words: "a mythical being,
especially a lizard or other reptile, thought to
be able to live in fire". So that's
what they were talking about on that show; it was
from the mythical salamander that the name got
applied to "fire magicians".
* Dustin Poe
"Salamander,
burn for me and I'll burn for you".
If we accept the central theme of living in the
past, the woman in Salamander is its antithesis;
someone who lives for the moment, who has brief,
passionate affairs and then moves on. In terms of
the album's story, Salamander goes along with
Ray's spur-of-the-moment taxi grab.
* Neil R.Thomason
In this refined,
pensive, acoustic song we see how Ray Lomas,
being an old early-sixties rocker or greaser, is confronted with someone from an
earlier generation, who like him, cannot let the
past go and clings to ideas, fashion etc. in this
case of the fifties' beat generation. This beat
is living in his memories and idealizes that era.
Ray is bored by his stories: he cannot relate to
it and leaves: "Think you must
have me all wrong, I didn't care friend, I wasn't
there, friend".
I suspect, that Ray intuitively feels that he
will end up like this beat guy, if he continues
living his life the way he does.
With "dead
beat" Ian
refers to the beat generation, also known as
beatnix or beatniks, a movement started in the
USA by poets and novelists. They criticized the
establishment, the consumer society, the rat race
(a term they introduced btw) and materialism. In
1956 beat generation drew the attention of the
public with 'Howl and other poems' by
Allen Ginsberg and the novel 'On the road'
by Jack
Kerouac. They adopted
a life style of chosen poverty and anarchistic
individualism, striving for 'extatic'
("beatific") experiences: "...
sharing wet dreams of Charlie Parker, Jack
Kerouac, René Magritte ...". Many of them were travelling the US
from coast to coast constantly ("sat
in the station ...") and/or used drugs, trying to flee from
the dullness of a moralizing and fixed society.
The theories of Zen-buddhism influenced them, as
well as those of the french experimental authors
of the twenties. When it comes to music, bebop
and hard bob jazz (Charlie Parker) were very popular among the beatnix,
while the influence they had on jazz music of
those days is reflected in the free jazz style of
Ornette Coleman a.o. Young intellectuals,
students and artists were attracted by their life
style and ideas, but the nucleus of the beat
generation fell apart in the early sixties. The
well-known authors of this movement continued to
publish: the poets Gregory Corso, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder Phil Walen and the
novelists Jack Kerouac, Chandler Brossard and
Wiliam S. Burroughs, while some of the older
authors like Norman Mailer and Kenneth Rexroth
were clearly influenced by them (1.).
René
Magritte (1898 -
1967), mentioned in this song, was a Belgian
surrealist painter, writer, essayist and
film-producer, who became very popular in the UK
and the USA. One of his most famous paintings is
the above "The treachery of images"
(1929). It depicts a pipe, but the painter tells
us it is not ("Ceci n'est pas une
pipe"): it's just a representation of what
we see (2.). More information about his ideas and
examples of his art can be found at The
Official Magritte Site.
* Jan Voorbij ; Sources: 1. Encarta Encyclopedie
Winkler Prins Editie 99, Amsterdam 1998; 2. The
Official Magritte Site.
The term 'greaser' derives from the perception of
motorcycles as dirty, greasy machines, and their
riders being much the same! I think the term
originates from the 1960s rivalry between the
motorbike-riding Rockers and the scooter-riding
Mods. "...
coffee bars; black tights and white thighs in
shop windows where blonde assistants
fully-fashioned a world made of dummies (with no
mummies or daddies to reject them). When bombs
were banned every Sunday and the Shadows played
F.B.I. All images of the good old days -
comforting and fairly tame. And tired young
sax-players sold their instruments of torture sat
in the station..." You could
be right about this line referring to beatniks
constantly travelling the US from coast to coast,
but I ve always received the image of busking
sax-players in the London Underground. Virtually
all the other images in this song are very
English and fit the theme of harking back to
better times in good old England.
* Neil R. Thomason
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